The Creative Process | Material Choices – Scholten & Baijings

In July 2011, Stefan Scholten and Carole Baijings were given a tour of Mini’s design studio in Munich, which ended with a display of a concept car. “We thought, this is a real car, this is not conceptual,” Scholten says. “It’s not about imagination anymore.”

In nine months, the duo pushed the limits for car prototypes with Colour One for Mini, a display of automotive innards at the 2012 Milan Furniture Fair. The show has since traveled around Europe, and is on display this month at the TEFAF Maastricht art fair in the Netherlands.

“Building a concept car is a designer’s dream, because it is one of the largest consumer products,” Scholten says. “A bus or an airplane may be bigger, but a car is still directly related to consumers.”